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Forum Discussion
Why do these com.dropbox.attributes files show up everywhere?
These files are cluttering up my folders. There seems to be one for every real file that I have. I'd like to delete them.
What are they and where did they come from? And how can I stop them?
Hi,
The issue you're seeing is a Mac issue that occurs when copying files with extended attributes metadata into a file system that doesn't support them.
Depending on the information stored in the metadata, you may or may not need these files.
These files are called AppleDouble files and more information on how to handle them can be found by searching for: "apple double files"
To avoid this issue if you have your Dropbox folder on an external drive, we recommend ensuring that the drive is formatted in the default file system format for the Operating System that is installed.
A quick fix to remove those files: from the website you can search "attributes" in the search bar.
You can select all the results and delete them all together.
Thank you!
Hi everyone!
The files you are seeing being added are "resource forks" or "extended attributes" (xattrs).
These attributes consist of additional information about a file and shouldn't normally be seen.
Usually, those com.dropbox.attributes files are generated by Dropbox or your computer when a file with a specific type of extended attribute is added to a computer with File System that doesn't support them.
The main two situations where you can encounter those files:
- You have installed/move Dropbox on a drive with a FAT32/ exFAT/ other unsupported File Systems that do not support certain types of extended attributes. In that case, all your files would be "duplicated".
- You are sharing a folder with someone who has Dropbox installed on one of those File Systems. In that case, you'll find resources forks only in that particular folder.
To resolve this, you have to:
- Locate which user/computer added those files by checking "Previous Versions".
- Once you've identified the device that is generating those xattrs, ask its owner to move Dropbox back to a drive formatted with HFS (Mac OS) or NTFS (Windows) or one that supports extended attributes (Linux).
To read more about extended attributes, please click on this link : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_file_attributes
I hope this helps!
